Small Business Internet Blog

Seven Proven Facebook Marketing Tips

Kelly Thomas Mango

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

With well over 1.3 billion active daily users, Facebook might seem like a treasure trove of potential paying customers. (Source: Facebook 2/10/2017) With all those users, it makes sense that some of them would be interested in your products or services, right? Kind of.

It can be challenging to create a local Facebook marketing strategy, but when done well it can yield great results. Read on to learn seven tried-and-true tactics for a winning Facebook marketing campaign.

Winning Facebook Marketing Tactics

1. Create an Event. Do you have a big sale, live performance, or other event coming up? Consider creating a Facebook event to promote it. To do this, click the Events option from the left-hand list on your business Facebook page. Then click the + Create Event button, fill out the information, and click the Create button. Viola! You have created your event.

2. Post business reviews and testimonials. Sometimes it is a stretch to come up with unique items to post to Facebook. People put a great deal of stock in customer reviews, so consider including screenshots of your Google, Yelp, or other reviews for social proof.

Additionally, you can encourage customers to share their experiences on your Facebook business page or include testimonials your business has received. Be sure to ask permission if you have received an emailed review or testimonial.

3. Show Your Local Pride. People love to share and read about what is going in their area. Follow Facebook pages relevant to your area and share local content that your audience might appreciate. Tag local businesses or groups when sharing their content to encourage engagement and visibility.

4. Run a Promotion. Set up a contest or promote a special offer with a Facebook promotion. To set one up, click the blue Promotion button in the left-hand column of your Facebook page and then follow the prompts. If you are setting up a contest, be sure to follow Facebook's contest rules (thanks for the breakdown, Shortstack) or your promotion could be pulled. Most notably, you can't require participants to share a page or post on your timeline, like a page, or tag themselves in pictures. While you can't require any of these things, you can encourage others to share.

5. Convert Online Visitors to Walk-In Customers. Encourage your audience to stop in for a visit to your brick-and-mortar business by promoting in-store events, posting coupons, and promoting giveaways.

6. Convert Walk-In Customers to Online Visitors. Turn customers into social media followers by using signs, coupons, flyers, and other items to encourage page likes, follows, or reviews. For example, a restaurant might include a small flyer in their to-go bags asking customers to follow them on Facebook for exclusive coupons or special offers.

7. Boost Posts for More Traction. To amplify the reach of a popular post (or bolster one that isn't doing so hot), try boosting the post. It is a very inexpensive way to expand the visibility of your post.

Having a successful Facebook strategy requires consistent monitoring and experimenting. Depending on the type of business you run, some tactics will work better than others. Keep an eye on what types of posts resonate best with your audience and adjust your strategy accordingly.